Sustainability: People VS Technology | #BC LIVE SESSION 10 RECAP

June 2, 2017

Sustainability: People VS Technology

#BRAINCANDIES LIVE SESSION 10 RECAP

The topic of the BRAINCANDIES LIVE SESSION 10 was Sustainability: People VS Technology, and we had some really inspiring speakers and guests. The goal of our event is always to create a safe environment for people to develop their soft skills and be themselves. This time our host Aiman really challenged the audience to get out of their comfort zone and experience that being the centre of attention is not as scary as you might think. But, even experienced speakers need a moment of creative relaxation sometimes as you can see.

Once everybody was seated on their numbered chairs, it was time to start with our first speaker: Juanita Devis. She talked about TerMITes for Technology. She was very enthusiastic in explaining how she involved kids in this technology.

One of the creative ideas from our host was to, instead of raising your hand, blow your whistle if you wanted to ask a question or make a remark. It really worked and the audience was actively using their whistle!

‍Whistles everywhere!

Our second speaker was Otto Kroesen, who talked about the language approach to technology. Otto is an expert in co-development of society, values and technology, especially in view of future strategies for developing countries.

After his talk, the fun continued! There were again 5 lucky ones, chosen by the bingoballs. They got to present a random subject, projected on the screen behind them on the spot. It caused lots of laughter and fun in the audience, and the participants easily came up with some random fiction stories on the spot. Or were they facts?

One of the audience members announcing a piano concert played by a chicken.

Our third speaker was Thibaut Decrè with his very creative talk about what’s stopping us from the future we’d love. The audience received a pen and paper to draw their dream house. A very inspiring talk that you’ll be able to watch in a few weeks when the videos go live!

As you might already know, it’s a very interactive night where we do a lot of exercises in between the speakers. To keep their focus and their blood flowing, the audience did some waves. Also one exercise was to use the whistles to create a ‘sound’ wave, which is more challenging than it sounds!

A very well choreographed wave.

Our fourth speaker was Immanuel Geesing, who surprised us all with a very inspiring talk about being conscious about your own impact on the environment and how we all are together in this.

Immanuel Geesing during his talk.

One out of many activities was to form groups, stand in front of the audience and guess the word they were trying to tell you (shown on the screen behind them, so only the audience could see it). The audience was only allowed to use related words, or descriptions. The participants on stage were all helping each other and did great!

‍Trying to guess the word from randomly yelled words from the audience is not super easy, but it is fun!

Our fifth speaker was Willemijn Peters, who is Ocean Ambassador of the Netherlands, who talked about the importance of protecting the ocean. Her social enterprise Searious Business is dedicated to prevent plastics from entering our ocean.

Aiman asking Willemijn some questions.

And, as you know, we always have a sixth surprise speaker. We had a lot of members of the audience who wanted to be a speaker, with a little encouragement from Aiman! Eventually Francisco Estevez told us a story about invisible slaves. To find out what the actual meaning behind his topic was, you can watch the video which will come out in a couple of weeks!

‍Fransisco showed lots of bravery improvising a talk!

The last assignment for our wonderful audience was to come up with their personal quote and write it down. Because everybody has something worth sharing!

‍Here you see the quotes flying through the air.

Overall, the vibe was great and the audience seemed to enjoy the different talks and activities. Even though getting on stage can be scary sometimes, people really got out of their comfort zones and had a blast on stage! Everyone really connected and there were lots of different discussions regarding the talks.